It is generally accepted that all biological functions can be interpreted on a molecular level. The proposed work is to study the conformation of proteins and peptides by means of circular dichroism (CD) together with other physicochemical methods. The CD analysis developed in this laboratory is now applied to a few chosen proteins and peptides. Our current interest is to determine the structure-forming potential of oligopeptides in a proteinaceous environment provided by surfactants. This is complemented by the study of synthetic polypeptides as model compounds in surfactant solution. The ultimate goal is to understand the structure-function relationship of proteins.